David: the Father-3

Parenting is no easy task and for me, it’s the most difficult adventure in my life!  There are more than a million times when I know I’m way out of my depth and I’m clear that I need God’s help!!  I’ve endeavored to be a good mom and now that my kids are moving into their adult years, I see lots of ways that I failed as a mom or at the minimum, fell short.  Of course, I’ve done some good things, but I’d absolutely make some different decisions if I did it all over again. 

As for David, the famous Old Testament king of Israel whom we’ve looked at in this blog series, he’s an interesting man to consider, as the father to his various children.  In the past two blogs, we considered David the shepherd and David the warrior.  Both of these identities were overall, pretty positive for David. From the shepherd perspective, David wrote Psalm 23, the most famous Psalm in the Bible.  As for being a warrior, David is still legendary for his ferocity and achievements.

Having looked at David as a shepherd and warrior, it’s important that we think about David as a father, if for no other reason than Solomon (an iconic king in Israel) was David’s son.  For a deeper dive into the topic of David being a father, in 1 Chronicles 3:1-8, we can see the names of many of David’s sons and it’s probable that David had no fewer than 15-20 kids.  At this time in history, that wasn’t unusual, given the commonality of multiple wives and concubines. 

So, what kind of father was David?  It’s interesting to think about this question, particularly in light of the choices his first few kids made in relation to their siblings.  Consider that Amnon, David’s firstborn, raped his half-sister, Tamar, and when David heard of Amnon’s violence, he didn’t do anything.  If you read 1 Samuel 13, you’ll see that this incident set in motion all kinds of bad consequences, that included murder, estrangement, deception, heartbreak and lots more. 

In relation to another one of David’s sons, Tamar’s brother conspired to overthrow his father. He wanted to be King, which we see in 1 Samuel 15.  He schemed and wooed the hearts of Israel for several years and then when everything was ready, he declared himself king and David had to run for his life.  You can read Psalm 3 to hear David’s heart in this tumultuous experience.  Ultimately, David won this civil war and Absalom was killed in the battle to depose his dad.  This broke David’s heart and almost cost him his kingship over Israel. 

Finally, let’s consider David’s son, Solomon who succeeded David to be king of Israel.  Solomon was Bathsheba’s son and that’s a story for another blog.  Nevertheless, Solomon was possibly the greatest King Israel ever had.  He built the Temple from the instruction and supplies given by his dad.  He was extremely prosperous and powerful, even considered to be one of the wisest men who ever lived.  Reading 1 Kings 3:1-15 could be helpful to see some of engagement with God and his request to have wisdom.  Also, consider that Solomon is said to have written a few books in the Old Testament, including Ecclesiastes. 

As a concluding overview of David’s parenting efforts, there’s evidence that he fell short as a father to his kids. Maybe this was because he was so involved in leadership and getting established as the king.  There could be a variety of reasons that David doesn’t seem to be such a whippy dad.  At the same time, there were a lot of good things invested into Solomon as we see reflected in his initial leadership as Israel’s king.  Nevertheless, I don’t think that David was as successful and impactful as a dad compared to David as a shepherd and warrior. 

In thinking about David in these various capacities, let’s appreciate that our lives also have many roles and responsibilities.  It’s probable that we are better at some of these roles and responsibilities while we could use some improvement in other areas. When it comes to parenting, no one really gets get right 100% of the time. But, when we invite God into our parenting and entrust Him with our children, they are in the best hands.

At the end of the day, for the conclusion of this blog series, I would suggest that regardless of where we find ourselves in the journey of life, let’s keep our passion and love for God as the ongoing and reoccurring theme that threads through each day that we live.  If there’s anything that we could model from David for our lives, it would be his passion for God, despite his failures, successes, sins, etc.